fitnesspizzainmydiet

[fitnesspizzainmydiet]

Are you being completely honest with yourself?

Seriously, are you being completely honest with yourself? When you track your meals, are you counting that slice of cheese you took a bite of when you were packing your lunch this morning? Or that cookie you snagged from the break room on your way back from the bathroom. What about the McDonalds you scarfed down on your way home from the bar last Friday night?

Not that any of those things are bad, but if you’re not tracking these things, and you’re not seeing progress week after week…maybe it’s time to reevaluate.

I’ve struggled with this in the past, especially for the last six months of 2022. After I lost the first 40 pounds between 2020-2022, I got really comfortable with the idea of flexible dieting and then slowly fell back into my old ways and ended up gaining 10 pounds back.

The problem?

I wasn’t being completely honest with myself.

I was drinking alcohol excessively which led to poor decision making with my nutrition. I was going through a bottle of Tito’s Vodka every weekend and then ordering “munchies” on UberEats, eating 20 piece chicken nuggets and an Oreo McFlurry at 3 a.m.

Because of the fact that I knew I was over my calories, I thought it was pointless to track them, so I just “skipped” the weekends and got back on my game on Monday morning. This cycle repeated itself every weekend until one day, I was listening to a podcast from Eric Roberts Fitness, and he said something that changed everything for me:

THE WEEKENDS ACCOUNT FOR 40% OF THE MONTH

40%!!!!

After I realized that these little “two or three days” were what was stopping me from reaching my goals, I started progressing in the right direction again.

On January 3rd, I decided I wasn’t going to drink anymore. I can’t say I ever had a problem with drinking, so it was fairly easy for me to just cut it out of my life.

But oh man, I am so glad I did.

Your situation may be a bit different than mine. Maybe you’re not throwing back a bottle of Tito’s every weekend and then eating yourself into a coma. But are you saying “Yes” to that chocolate chip muffin on Saturday morning at Dunkin Donuts when you grab yourself a coffee and not tracking it because “it’s the weekend” and you “deserve” a treat?

Are you skipping your workouts on Sunday because you just want to sleep in on your day off?

Are you sitting on the couch mindlessly eating a bag of Doritos instead of weighing out a serving size?

Are you sneaking bites of your kids McNuggets and not tracking it because “it’s just a bite!”

These little bites here and there add up, and the next thing you know, you just consumed an extra 300 to 500 calories today.

I still enjoy an occasional vodka and Redbull at a concert or a glass of wine on Sunday evening when I’m meal prepping. But because I stopped consuming over a thousand calories of vodka every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night; and because I stopped consuming 3,000 calories of McDonalds, White Castle, and whatever else is open at 3A.M., I’ve been able to get back on track and have lost over 20 pounds in just under 12 weeks!

All because I decided to get brutally honest with myself and what I’m doing every weekend.

As cliché as it sounds, you are in control of your journey. No one can do this for you.

Treat the weekend the same way you treat your Mondays.

Practice self-discipline, stay motivated.

[fitnesspizzainmydiet]

How you speak to yourself matters!

One thing I’ve noticed throughout this journey is how negatively people (including myself) speak to or about themselves.

I feel like this isn’t something that’s really spoken about in the fitness community so I felt the need to address it.

When I was at my heaviest, I would often joke about my weight. I did this because I felt like if I already put myself down, there was nothing else anyone could say that would make me feel bad.

For example, if my friends were all making plans to do something like going hiking, and we would be looking up trails in the area to check out. I would always notice everyone getting uncomfortable when discussing how long the train was or how difficult it would be. My friends never said anything directly to me about it, but I knew the little awkward silences and side eyes were due to my weight.

So, what did I do? I made fun of myself.

I would blurt out something stupid like “six miles? You guys trying to kill me? You know I’m fat!” or “ya’ll see that says ‘very strenuous’ AKA not fat girl friendly, right?!”

Even at parties and gatherings, I always made a point to be the first person to comment on my weight so no one else can. I would make comments that I thought people were already thinking. If I were going back for a second or third slice of pizza, I would jokingly say something like “you don’t get this size by missing any meals” or “pass me another slice, big girl gotta eat!”

I was never insecure with my appearance, so I never felt “ugly” or ashamed of my size. I just knew that I clearly was a lot bigger than most girls so the way I spoke to myself didn’t make me see myself differently or anything.

The problem?

I normalized being “the fat friend” in my group.

I accepted that I was “the big girl”.

And I believed that was all I’d ever be.

So, when it came time to try to lose weight, I made so many excuses for myself because of my size.

Because of the fact that I truly believed that I would always just be “the fat friend”, I got in the way of my own progress.

Whenever I would start a “new diet”, I would quit within a week because I had already accepted my body even though I knew I was overweight and unhealthy.

When I would try working out, I would give up instantly because in my head, I was already too far gone. I made my peace with my size, so there was no motivation for me to push through the difficult exercises.

By normalizing and accepting my oversized body, I programed my brain to believe that that’s all I’d ever be – overweight and unhealthy.

I started noticing this word “manifest” all over social media at the time and it helped me shift my mindset. I remember seeing all these people posting about how you get back what you put into the world, people encouraging others to speak positively and telling others that if you want something, you just have to “manifest” it.

To be honest, I thought these people were full of crap. You mean to tell me I can just tell “the universe” that I want to be skinny and it’s just going to happen? Yeah, okay.

But after years of trying to lose weight and failing; trying new diets only to gain the weight back, and then some; trying all these non-surgical procedures and treatments and losing nothing but the money I paid for the service, I figured “okay maybe I’ll try this manifesting crap” And I’ll be honest,

Nothing changed.

BUT,

I learned how to speak to myself properly.

Instead of beating myself up and calling myself a fat, lazy POS when the scale didn’t move, I reassured myself that if I kept putting in the work, the results would follow.

Instead of pointing out my size when looking at physical activities with my friends, I started joking with them that “I’m always down for a challenge!”.

Instead of accepting the fact that I “always fail”, I started reassuring myself that if I didn’t reach my goals, I would just have to re-access and see what I could do differently.

This one little switch snowballed into a completely different mindset. Not only was I able to lose 60 pounds, but I was doing better at work, in school, and even my business started to flourish!

This didn’t come simply because I told the “universe” that I wanted it. But because I stopped believing that I was never going to change, I started making conscious decisions to work towards my goals.

The way you speak to yourself can make an immense difference in your life overall, it doesn’t just have to be about a fitness goal.

So the next time you try to put yourself down or doubt that you can do something, switch your mindset into something more positive. You didn’t “only lose 10 pounds”, you already lost 10 pounds! 

[fitnesspizzainmydiet]

Discipline over Motivation

Since I have started my fitness journey two years ago, one of the most common questions I get is “How in the world do you stay motivated?”

The truth is, I’m usually not “motivated” to pull out my kitchen scale and weigh every single bite I put on my plate.

I don’t usually want to pull out my phone at the dinner table at Applebee’s on a Friday night when I’m supposed to be enjoying my “girl’s night” to calculate how many calories I can afford to consume,

I don’t want to run to the gym at 9pm on a Monday night because I work from 7am-4pm and have class from 6pm-8:40pm and have no other time during the day to get my workout in.

But over the years, I’ve built up my discipline to the point where I do it, even and especially when I don’t want to.

Why?

Because I learned that discipline = results which = motivation.

So many people are searching for this “motivation” because they think that’s what’s going to deliver results but what happens when you’re not motivated? You sit on the couch, binge watching Netflix for hours, “snacking” here and there, not tracking your meals so you over consume calories, and the next day you feel like crap. Then, because you already feel like you messed up the day before, you say F it and promise you’ll get back on track on Monday. You eat like crap all weekend because you know once Monday comes, it’s time to get strict with your diet again.

Then Monday comes around and the scale is up by 3-5lbs and you feel even worse because you’ve “ruined all your progress”.

All because you weren’t “motivated” to get yourself to the gym on Thursday night.

I once read a quote that truly changed my perspective. It said “if you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.”

I know it sounds so cliché and obvious, but sometimes that’s what we need.

You can’t keep going out drinking every Friday night, ending up at the diner at 3a.m with an order of disco fries and a chocolate milkshake and then waking up and going to the gym Saturday morning expecting results by Monday morning.

The trick is to stay 80% consistent (I say 80% because it still gives you flexibility to enjoy things in moderation) and the results will speak for themselves. Once you begin seeing results, I promise you won’t be searching for motivation!

Rome wasn’t built in day, and your dream body won’t be either.

Have patience, stay consistent, track your progress, and enjoy the journey.

[fitnesspizzainmydiet]

NEVER SAY NO TO PIZZA AGAIN

Growing up we had pizza at least once a week. My father was born and raised in Brooklyn and man, did he love his pizza. He would call home every Thursday and ask, “did your mother cook?” to which I would always sarcastically reply “of course not, it’s pizza night!” and then he would say “call up Dickie Dees, order a large pie with extra cheese and pepperoni, well done. Tell them ‘Jimmy’ will be there in ten minutes.” Some of my favorite memories with my dad include us either ordering pizza and watching WWE, or stopping at random hole in the wall pizza joints to see what they were about.

I’ll never forget, two weeks after getting my tonsils removed my mother got called into work for an emergency meeting and my father was responsible for feeding my siblings and I dinner that night. Guess what he ordered?

A large, extra cheese and pepperoni pie, well done from Dickie Dee’s in Newark, NJ.

The problem? I couldn’t eat solid foods yet!

Did that stop me? NOPE. My father and I sat there and cut up two slices of pizza into the tiniest, bite size pieces and I chewed them up until they were soft enough to swallow. It may have taken me thirty minutes to eat two slices of pizza, but Dad didn’t raise a quitter 💪🏽

When I decided to start losing weight as an adult, I knew I would never be successful if my meals were limited to baked chicken and broccoli or boring Cesar salads.

That’s when I learned about flexible dieting and calories in VS calories out.

For years, the media has glorified weight pills, surgeries, or overly restrictive diets for weight loss. I’m living proof that you can lose weight without giving up your favorite foods (or getting surgeries that restrict your diet for the rest of your life anyways).

I’ve been counting calories for the last two years, and I’m watching the pounds shed off week by week. I recommend everyone try this method at least once and try to do it for three months to give yourself time to see results.

The first thing you need to do is calculate how many calories you should be consuming. I recommend using this website to do that. These are going to be your maintenance calories. In order to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit (meaning you need to eat less calories than you burn.) If you’re just starting out, I recommend a 3-400 deficit.

So let’s say your maintenance calories are 2400 calories per day. Subtract 400 from that, and you have the amount of calories you should be eating in a deficit, 2000 calories. I like to think about these calories as dollars (bare with me)

So let’s say you have $2000 (or 2000 calories). How you chose to spend those $2000 is completely up to you.

If you have a nice, low calorie breakfast and you want to go to McDonalds for lunch and order a Big Mac with large fries, a large coke and an apple pie go for it. Just remember that you still need to be within the 2000 calorie range in order to see results. So if you had that nice, low calorie breakfast, and then you ordered everything off the dollar menu at McDonalds for lunch, chances are you’re going to have to make some sacrifices and eat that boring old cesar salad for dinner.

It all comes down to calories in VS calories out.

With all that being said, there are plenty of ways you can make some of your favorite meals at home for half the calories without sacrificing flavors. One of the ways I’m able to eat pizza three times a week while losing weight is by making my own at home! As promised in my previous post, I’ll walk you through the recipe and leave the macros below!

Ingredients

1 Cup of self rising flour (this is super important!)

¾ Cup of Non-fat plain Greek yogurt

¼ cup of your favorite pizza sauce (homemade is best!)

56g of low fat or fat free mozzarella cheese

17g of turkey pepperoni (optional)

4g salt

4g garlic powder

Preheat your oven to 420 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Start by adding ¾ cup of your yogurt to a bowl, along with the salt and garlic powder. You can feel free to add whatever seasonings you’d like here, but I feel like the salt and garlic give the dough that classic NYC pizza dough flavor. Add in ¼ cup of flour at a time and stir until combined. If you have a stand mixer, use your dough hook to make this part a little easier on yourself. If not, a wooden spoon is fine! I tend to use a little less than a full cup of flour, but I keep the remaining to the side to sprinkle on the counter while kneading/rolling out the dough.

Once your dough comes together and is still a little tacky, flour your work space and start rolling out that pizza dough to your designed shape and thickness. Place the dough on a nonstick oven safe pan (I got my 10” pizza pans at Big Lots on sale for ten cents!! Check your local discount stores’ sale sections!) and place in your preheated oven for ten to fifteen minutes. It is important to cook the dough before adding any sauce or toppings so it can cook evenly. Once the dough starts to rise a bit, remove from the oven and start adding your toppings.

I like to use homemade sauce because it just taste the best in my opinion, but you can use whatever you’d like! Keep in mind that the calories will differ depending on what brand you use.

Once you have your pizza assembled, place it back into the oven for an additional 10-12 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. I like to spray the crust with a little bit of cooking spray for that beautiful golden brown color!

Take the pizza out of the oven and allow to cool for 3-5 minutes before cutting. Slice your pizza into 6-8 slices and enjoy!

If you follow these instructions to the T, you will have an entire pizza that is only 620calories, 2.3g fat, 102g carbs and 48g protein!

Give this recipe a shot and let me know how you like it!

[fitnesspizzainmydiet]

Good vs Bad Food?

How many times have you started a diet and did really well Monday-Friday, but then when Friday night rolls around you find yourself in bed with a bag of lays potato chips and a box of your favorite Krispy Kreme donuts binging your favorite Netflix series? Or how many times have you found yourself “failing” your diet because you ate one donut at work, so you spend the rest of the weekend eating crappy foods and promising yourself you’ll “get back to it” on Monday?

These are some of the most common things people say when they are trying to lose weight and this article is going to be my little two cents on the matter, as well as my tips on how to avoid this. I would first like to give a disclaimer, I am in no way a certified dietitian or nutritionist, but I am sharing what I have learned over the last two and half years through my personal experience and research.

Now, let’s start with the most important thing. There is no such thing as good or bad foods. That doesn’t mean an order of French fries are healthier than a cup of steamed vegetables, but everything is okay in moderation. You do not need to wait until Friday to have a “cheat meal” or “cheat day”. In fact, it will be much easier for you to stay consistent on your journey if you completely eliminate these terms from your vocabulary.

When we are speaking about weight loss specifically, calories and protein are king. Meaning, if you remain in a calorie deficit (eating less calories than you burn in a day), and hit your protein goals for the day, you should have no issues burning fat and losing weight. This has been the most helpful thing for me and how I’ve been able to sustainably lose fifty pounds. If you want that donut that’s sitting in the break room on Friday, go for it and most importantly DON’T FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT. Seriously, it’s one donut. Simply work it into your calories and enjoy! This may mean cutting back on a serving of pasta or rice at dinner, but these are small sacrifices that helped me stay sane on my journey.

With that being said, I would like to speak about why you feel the compulsion to binge at the end of the night or week. Many times when people are trying to diet, they tend to over restrict themselves and by the end of the day or week, your body is looking for those extra calories that it’s missing. At that point, you tend to be so hungry that you over eat and that’s where the chips and donuts come in. You find yourself so hungry and too tired to cook yourself something low calorie, so you run to the pantry and shove whatever is quick in your mouth. Next thing you know, you’re 1000 calories over your limit, and you probably don’t feel the best either.

I know this struggle because that was the story of my life every single time I tried losing weight in the past. I would do great with my meal replacement shakes and bland meals like baked chicken and white rice, but then I would be in bed eating a family size bag of Cheetos at eight p.m. because I was starving and had no energy to make myself something to eat. The biggest things that saved me from this never-ending cycle of binge eating were 1. Increasing my daily protein intake 2. Allowing myself to enjoy my favorite treats in moderation without feeling guilty or ashamed and 3. Finding lower calorie options for the food I grew up eating.

In the following posts to come, I will share how I work those irresistible treats into my daily calories, and I’ll even give you guys my pepperoni pizza recipe that I eat at least once a week (that’s under 700calories for the whole pizza) Stay tuned for more!

[fitnesspizzainmydiet]

My story

Hey! My name is Kacey Cuevas, and I am the pickiest eater you’ll ever meet. Pickle on my sandwich? Send it back! No, you can’t just “take them off”, I’ll taste the pickle juice. Side salad touched my steak? I’m not eating that side. Sounds annoying, I know, but this is my reality. I remember one Thanksgiving my father had it with ordering me pizza when there was a whole smorgasbord in the kitchen. He made me sit at the table and try a piece of turkey. He said if I didn’t like it, I could spit it out and he’d order me the pizza, but I had to at least try. So I did, and boy, did Dad learn his lesson that year. I had him carve me off the smallest bite of white meat he can and I pushed it around my plate for a good five minutes. Then I picked it up, inspected it, and tried to hold my breath when I put it in my mouth. I pushed the piece of turkey over to the back of my jaw in hopes to just chew and avoid it touching my taste buds (a 10-year old’s logic LOL). The second I bit down into the turkey and tasted the flavors of my mom’s special spice blend I gagged. My face turned white, I got nauseous and then, you may be able to guess what happened next. I vomited all over the Thanksgiving dinner table. Safe to say we all ate pizza that night.

Since then, my family didn’t really try to push new foods on me. My mom kept the freezer stocked with dino shaped chicken nuggets, tater tots, pizza rolls, and frozen hamburger patties. At family parties, my mom stopped at Wendys or McDonalds to make sure I ate before the party. (fun fact: I had my driver stop at a Wendys drive through on my high school prom to grab some nuggets so I didn’t have to starve throughout the night.) Living at home, my mom would control the snacking (my nickname was the Chip Monster) and she would try to make healthier versions of my comfort foods. However, when I moved out on my own, things got dangerous. UberEats and DoorDash were my best friends. I also got myself a membership at Costco and I had access to chips, cookies, and soda in bulk. After living on my own for a couple of years, I was completely unrecognizable. I had put on about sixty pounds from my high school weight. I struggled to walk my dog, and I started to feel like I no longer fit comfortably in my car.

It wasn’t until my best friend decided to throw a Halloween party one year that I realized I needed to change. In September of 2020, I set a goal to lose ten pounds by the time of the party. It was going to be the first time seeing my friends since the start of the pandemic and there were even going to be people I hadn’t seen since high school and I was mortified for them to see how out of control I had gotten. By the time the party came around, I was down about fifteen pounds! I was feeling way better and although I still had a long way to go, I was so proud of myself for sticking to it this time! I had tried to lose the weight countless times in the past before it got out of control, but I failed because I followed all these fad diets, tried weight loss supplements, over worked myself doing exercises I hated at the gym, and I was searching high and low for a “magic pill” or an easy way out.

I have spent the last few years getting to know my body and what works for me. I have dedicated hours to researching and learning about sustainable weight loss and now, I am ready to share that all with you! If your story sounds anything like mine and/or you are struggling in your weight loss journey, this is the blog for you! Stay tuned for tips, motivation, low calorie dupes for your favorite foods and more.

Fell free to follow my fitness page on Instagram where my partner and I post work outs, meals, and various forms of fitness content!

https://www.instagram.com/friesandthighzz/?hl=en

[fitnesspizzainmydiet]

Letter from the editor

Growing up, I was always a problem child when it came to eating.

I wouldn’t drink milk, my mom had to make me special meals, and I damn sure was not eating any vegetables that were on my plate. My family thought it was just me being a picky kid, but then I found myself 24 years old living off of pizza, chicken nuggets, and hamburgers.

As I got older and my metabolism started to slow down, the weight started piling on and by 2016 I could hardly recognize myself. A friend of mine was throwing a Halloween party (my favorite holiday) and I couldn’t find a single costume to wear that went over my hips, let alone “complimented” my figure. At this point, I knew something had to change. Here I am, three years later, fifty pounds down and ready to share my story in hopes to help and inspire others in a similar situation. 

Feel free to follow me to learn helpful weight loss tips for beginners, low calorie recipes, and motivation tips to help you along your journey!